Voca jumps into council savings gambit

Payments organisation Voca is partnering with the government in a bid to save £2m of taxpayers' money by improving transactions in the public sector.

Voca, formally known as Bacs, has teamed up with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and will work with councils to help them meet savings targets set last year.

The project will review £120bn worth of annual council transactions and attempt to reduce the 15 per cent of errors in direct debit payments.

The Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Centre of Excellence, set up by the ODPM to help councils with the procurement process, is to lead the project.

Voca is currently overhauling its IT infrastructure to make European consumer banking transactions cheaper.